Subjects here may range from Tarot, to fiction, the teaching of writing, sacred texts, fun books and cool movies, travel, music, and anything else. These are the kinds of things I can't do on the web site. Well, truth is, I can't do much of anything on the web site without someone else helping, but even if I could, well, you get the idea.

Maybe next time I will write something about my favorite books. Or the relationship of slavery to the Ten Commandments. Or weird Jewish myths. Like the Yemeni story where Eve has the Devil's baby –the Devil is called Samael in Jewish tradition–and then she and Adam kill the baby and eat it, and when Samael comes and asks where her baby is, Adam and Eve say "Baby? What baby? Did you see a baby?" until the child calls out from their bodies, and Samael says "Because you have taken my son into your hearts he will remain there forever, and the hearts of your children, and your children's children."

Or maybe I will talk about The See of Logos, the set of surreal fortune-telling cards I'm doing with the amazing artists of Magic Realist Press (creators of The Tarot of Prague, and the Fairytale Tarot). Or the short story collection I'm doing for Magic Realist, and perhaps what it's like to read work in progress to a writing group (we meet once a week and share our work–if you're a new writer, or experienced–I've published 28 books–a writing group is a great help).

Or maybe just Spring in the Hudson Valley, and walking with Wonder Girl, my sweet dog. As you can see, there are lots of possibilities.

In the movie Enemy of the State I always remember Gene Hackman telling Will Smith (I think this is how it went,it's been awhile since I saw the movie) that he has to distroy his secret high tech hide away because Will made a phone call.

Who would have thought a random act we often take for granted would have such powerful repercussions?

And yet in the world of super agents it is often the little things that seem to cause the biggest ripples.

But then again what do I know? I'm just a house wife living in the country.

Jewish myth is a strange subject because modern Jews, like modern Christians, believe that the word “myth” applies to old Pagan stories that have no reality, whereas Jewish (and Christian) stories are all real.

I use the word myth to mean a story that has an inner truth that cannot be put into simple explanations. Jewish tradition is filled with such stories. There is a wonderful Hasidic saying that God made humans because God loves stories.

Some stories can be pious and/or simple to decode in their moral messages, but others, such as the one about Adam and Eve eating Samael’s baby, are downright strange.

One of those strange ones involve the creation of talking heads, and is the inspiration for a novella I am currently writing called Simon Wisdom.

Another, very old, astonishingly creates the exact image of the Hanged Man, in some ways the strangest picture in the Tarot. This too i have used in a story, The Tarot of Perfection. More on both of these in a future blog!

River Hawk, I read over your comment about Enemy of the State, and was thinking again how right you are to focus on that scene.

The recent NSA shockers remind us just how vulnerable we all are to technological invasions of our privacy.

Actually, I think privacy is dead, and has been for some time (as someone in the movie says). Instead of lying to ourselves that we somehow can prevent the government from finding out anything at all about us, we should be working to have the same access to find out things about the government.

In some ways I think the end of privacy could be a good thing for people. "We are only as sick as our secrets" runs an old saying. If we discover that we have no secrets we have no choice but to be open about who we really are.

Rachel! How wonderful to go to Alex Chee's blog and find an entry that you've started one. I can't wait to read more – I've encountered few minds more simultaneously kaliedoscopic and encyclopedic, and your trains of thought are a great, great ride. I'll post a link to Shining Tribe on Theriomorph so a few more people know you're here.

Hooray for your Greece trip! Any chance of getting up to the Temple of Asclepius, too? Amazing to stretch out on the stone beds where they did dream analysis (slabs now in open air, surrounded by fields of chammomile). I promptly fell asleep, ever the obedient servant to the Greek archetype.

Thank you, Jessamyn. Great to hear from another lover of the Greek Gods.

I met Jessamyn at Goddard College, where I teach creative writing for the Master of Fine Arts. She’s a wonderful writer, with a brilliant mind.

Yes, jessamyn, we will indeed be going to Epidaurus and the dream temple of Aesclepius. I actually was writing up the intinerary just yesterday (as soon as Nicky Scully and I iron out the final details I will post it here), and that is one of the highlights.

The NSA revelations have been partnered by the Supreme Court ruling on the 4th amendment. Now they can wiretap us AND break into our houses if they hold the magic paper – the warrant – which any judge will issue for any perceived provocation.
I agree with you: now we have to focus on getting to know **them** –